Research Projects

Lignocellulosic biomass waste is an emerging carbon feedstock for sustainable development of fuel-grade chemicals and fine chemicals. Cellulose is a major source of bio-based aliphatic fine chemicals, and lignin can yield a wide range of aromatic value-added chemicals. The development of sustainable catalytic processes to transform biomass into valuable fine chemicals is crucial for survival. Two fundamental chemical transformations - oxidation and reduction - will be studied, with the methodology applied to biomass valorization. Catalytic peroxidative and aerobic oxidations protocols will be developed as environmentally benign and sustainable processes. Catalytic hydrogenation will be developed as a sustainable approach, yielding no by-products, sometimes water as the only green by-product. However, pressurized hydrogen gas and expensive experimental setups are disadvantages for classical hydrogenations. Catalytic transfer hydrogenation will also be considered as an attractive and easy reduction alternative. To tackle sustainability and green aspects of catalytic processes, sustainable resources and minimum waste generation will be considered. Increased research efforts to use cheap, abundant, and sustainable base-metal catalysts will lead to the development of sustainable alternatives to noble metal catalysis. Readily available ligands will be utilized to avoid complex and lengthy ligand synthesis. Green solvents will be used, as solvents generate most of the chemical waste in chemical transformations. Various green and sustainable features, such as environmentally benign green solvents, energy parameters, health and safety parameters, will be considered.